Henry KendallPrint Page

The park commemorates the Australian poet, Henry Kendall (1839-1882) who worked in this area from 1876 to 1881. Kendall was named in honour of the poet.  While in Camden Haven (Kendall) , Henry Kendall wrote to the Post-Master General lending support to the villagers’ request for a post office and, when it was later established, the name of the village was changed, posthumously, to Kendall in his honour on 1 October 1891.

Despite critical success with his poetry, Kendall was troubled by poverty, depression, family problems and alcoholism in the late 1860s and early 1870s. The Fagan family of Gosford then took him under their wing and, in 1876, he was sent to work in their store at what was then Camden Heads. There his wife rejoined him and he returned to physical and mental health. While in Camden Heads he composed topical and political skits for the press and, in 1879, wrote the words for the cantata to be sung at the Sydney International Exhibition. 

Kendall`s third volume of verse, Songs From the Mountains (1880) was his first financial success, selling a record number of copies in the first two months. The following year he left Kendall as Henry Parkes obtained for him an inspectorship of State Forests but the work proved damaging to his health and he collapsed and soon died in 1882.

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